The leadership concepts and exhortations below can be summed up in a word, RESPECT.
Respect for your abilities, respect for your followers, respect for your team,
respect for the mission, respect for humor, and respect for relationship building.

My inspiration for this week’s blog post came from two sources: An international magazine and my community’s recent city commission meeting.

Fast Companydubbed its February offering the 2016 Leadership Issue. The article “Lessons of Leadership” presented lessons learned and shared at the inaugural Fast Company Innovation Festival.

As you read the selected insights below consider how both your team’s and your world-view compare to their views on trust, failure, innovation, listening, possibilities, and self-limiting constraints. Maybe you don’t wish to measure up; maybe you do. By any measure, their experiences offer points for consideration. So, in their words (bold-faced highlights are my emphasis), here are a few lessons for leadership and collaboration:

Image: dan@FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“In the work environment, innovation comes from great trust, from people having a voice. Fear inhibits innovation.”-Susan Reilly Salgado (Union Square Hospitality)

“The difference between skill and talent: A skill is something you learn. Talent is what you can’t help doing.”-Caroline Gibson (Levo)

“Don’t be afraid to fail, but when you do, fail fast and laugh at yourself.” Michael Houston (Grey North America)

“As exciting as the digital age is, the most brilliant, fastest tech can’t bring what human connection can bring.” Jim Brett (West Elm)

“First of all, just listen and learn.”-Angela Ahrendts (Apple)

“If you make something you love, people are going to fall in love with it.”-Brown Johnson (Sesame Workshop)

“It’s the hypothesis that there’s nothing sacred that can’t be changed…If you just think about the world of possibilities with the existing infrastructure, you’re massively limiting yourself…There’s something beautiful about ignoring all realistic constraints.”-Anne Wokcicki (23andMe)

Ahrendts of Apple (and previously of Burberry) emphasized that when we listen we build trust and the people we lead want to collaborate. The followers gladly follow and go beyond being clock punchers. She cited that Apple’s recent retention rate among employees hit 81% “because they feel connected.” And the effective leaders and teams have “emotional electricity.” (See the TEDx video below.)

Consider where you hone your calling each day. Is there a feeling that you bring about meaningful change and that you are leaving/have left the world better than you found it? Are you building human connections—validating relationships? Does your life’s work have relevance?

The leadership concepts and exhortations above can be summed up in a word, RESPECT. Respect for your abilities, respect for your followers, respect for your team, respect for the mission, respect for humor, and respect for relationship building.

Every two weeks the Atlantic Beach City (Florida) Commission convenes to discuss the business of our community. And like any example of democracy in progress, the public has the opportunity to address our elected representatives. As I entered the chamber this past week, I picked up a Speaker Request Form and found at its top a reminder as to what respect means:

Refrain from put downs, criticism and personal attacks.

Encourage others to state their views.

Support each other, even if you don’t agree.

Practice active listening.

Express yourself assertively not aggressively, not submissively.

Collaborate, do not compete or collude.

Trust each other, unless and until such trust is violated.

Atlantic Beach at Sunrise (Steve Piscitelli)

Make it a wonderfully successful week as you create and tap into your emotional electricity—H.T.R.B. as needed.